#RyersonSA

Thoughts on life outside the classroom.
The Ryerson SA Blog serves as a point of connection for professional staff in the Career Centre, Housing and Residence Life, Student Health and Wellness, Student Learning Support, and Student Life.

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BEGINNER

Demonstrate basic helping skills such as active listening, facilitating reflection and understanding nonverbal communication.

INTERMEDIATE

Engage in intermediate helping skills such as knowing appropriate levels of challenge and support, perceiving unspoken dynamics in a group setting, identifying patterns of behavior and managing conflict and mediation.

ADVANCED

Design and implement training strategies to teach others developmental helping skills.

5 Pillars of #RyersonSA

The 5 Pillars of #RyersonSA are the values and principles we use to guide our work with and for students. Built on a strong Ryerson foundation of commitment to and pursuit of equity, diversity, inclusion, and access, we use these pillars to help students find opportunities to create their narrative and success. Each of the Pillars is rooted in the overarching mission of one of the five #RyersonSA departments but, by design, all five are meant to be shared by all #RyersonSA staff and programs.

Ethics & Legal Responsibility

The application of ethical standards to our work in #RyersonSA is a purposeful goal, assuring that we maintain a common practice and understanding across the division so that we may support one another. Additionally, a basic understanding of relevant legal responsibilities around key student issues is critical.

BEGINNER

One should be able to:

have a general understanding of ethical principles of the Student Affairs profession.
demonstrate an understanding of the role of ethics, beliefs, and values in personal decision-making.
explain how their behaviour embodies ethical principles.
identify ethical and legal issues in the course of their job.
identify institutional and individual actions that may not be consistent with ethical principles.
Identify on-campus resources for support in FIPPA compliance in the creation of new programs, services, procedures, policies, etc.
understand the legal obligations students assume when they sign enrollment contracts with Ryerson.
assist others with recognizing potential legal and ethical issues in their decision-making.

INTERMEDIATE

One should be able to:

recognize the legal and cultural influences of ethical principles of the Student Affairs profession.
embody a personal code of ethics within their professional practice.
recognize how others’ behaviours embody ethical principles.
utilize institutional resources to assist with ethical and legal issues.
address institutional and individual actions that may not be consistent with ethical principles and are potentially unlawful.
fully understand FIPPA compliance as it relates to the work of their department; serve as local expert assuring that all programs, services, procedures, and policies are compliant.
explain to students the legal obligations they assumed when they signed enrollment contracts with Ryerson.
assist others in addressing and resolving ethical issues in their decision-making and provides legal resources.

ADVANCED

One should be able to:

teach others about legal and cultural factors in applying ethical principles of the Student Affairs profession.
implement a personal protocol for ethical decision-making.
actively engage in professional development about ethical and legal issues in the Student Affairs profession.
contribute to the creation of institutional resources to assist with ethical and legal issues.
ensure institutional and individual actions adhere to ethical principles and educates on legal implications.
own and explain a broad understanding of FIPPA compliance issues and how they fit in the cross-campus context; teach others methods of FIPPA compliance methods in the creation of new programs, services, policies, and procedures.
Advocate on behalf of students who may require support in issues related to legal obligations they assumed when they signed enrollment contracts with Ryerson.
engage with others regarding ethical and legal issues in their decision-making and support the ethical development of other professionals.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Student Life focuses on developing the whole person in a social and self-reliant construct. We know that students arrive at Ryerson with great interest in what their social lives will be like, who their friends will be, and how much fun they will have. #RyersonSA is committed to making sure that students have many opportunities to develop the personal and social dimensions of their beings.

Dr. John Smith — Founder & CEO.

LEARNING:

Rooted in Student Learning Support, the Learning Pillar reminds us that the primary goal and mission of Ryerson and its students is learning and knowledge. Keeping a focus on this as a priority will help us shape programs and services with cognitive development and learning in mind, and will help us pay particular attention to the desired outcomes for all of our interactions with students.

MENTAL WELL-BEING:

Based on the expertise and practices from our colleagues in Student Health & Wellness, all #RyersonSA practitioners strive to have our programs and services for students align with best practices for promoting mental well-being. We know students cannot be successful in any dimension of their lives if they don’t possess, or aren’t working towards, a feeling of personal wellness—of which mental well-being is a significant part.

COMMUNITY:

Sense of belonging is important; akin to the safety and security Maslow talks about as prerequisite for having all other needs met, we know that students need to feel a sense of belonging, or community, in order to be successful in academic, personal, and professional pursuits. Housing & Residence Life embodies the Community Pillar because they have students actually living with them. But how do we contribute to the sense of belonging our students experience, and how can #RyersonSA enhance that community through our engagement with them?

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Over 95% of incoming Ryerson students cite getting a better and/or higher paying job after graduation as one of their reasons for choosing Ryerson. The new Ryerson Career Centre is revolutionizing their approach to student engagement so that we help students remember, and achieve, their career & professional development goals. Working with partners throughout #RyersonSA, they are finding ways to capture the attention of students in all parts of their lives at Ryerson to keep those aspirations alive.

Kelvin BlackFrom Dallas

A result of this commitment to de-siloization and collaboration has been a new richness in the tapestry of programming coming out of #RyersonSA. Our engagement with students is now complementary to ways their various identities intersect. We know that students are complex, and often complicated, human beings, and we need to make sure we offer pathways to success for them—whatever those may look like.

Zasha SwanFrom Australia

We don’t work in silos in #RyersonSA. Aside from legal, professional, technical, and specific requirements of individual jobs, we all share the work of helping students achieve success through our shared work in the 5 Pillars. We’re all responsible for student success—every dimension.

Frank JonesFrom Japan

All #RyersonSA staff advise and help students at various times and in various ways. Though the specific instances of our providing support may differ, these skills, knowledge areas and attitudes should be used as a guiding framework for further developing our competence in these critical areas.

Jack BrownnFrom London, UK

Student Learning

#RyersonSA has responsibility to provide developmental support to accompany students’ classroom learning. This competency area addresses concepts and principles of student development and learning theory.

Development

Student Affairs professionals should understand and know how to apply existing theory to their work with students, and #RyersonSA should acknowledge its unique opportunity to contribute to the development of new Canadian-based student development and learning theory.

Premium Material

Design appropriate assessment methods to evaluate their own teaching and learning; use assessment results to inform their own teaching, training, and practice.